Celebrity MasterChef: Christmas Cook-Off 2025
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm, Monday, December 22 on BBC One London (1)
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About this Broadcast
Christmas Cook-Off 2025
Season 1, Episode 1
Reality TV star GK Barry, actor Kola Bokinni, BBC disability correspondent Nikki Fox and comedian Iain Stirling show off their cooking skills in an effort to impress judges Grace Dent and John Torode. First, they must follow a recipe for a celebratory Christmas centrepiece - and with each dish having an Italian twist, the judges call in 2024 Celebrity MasterChef champion Vito Coppola to help judge the results. After that, the contestants have one simple task - serve up their ultimate Christmas dinner
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audio-description
Cooking
Game Show/Quiz/Contest
Leisure Hobbies
Show/Game Show
Cast & Crew
Grace Dent
(Judge)
John Torode
(Judge)
Vito Coppola
(Judge)
GK Barry
(Contestant)
Kola Bokinni
(Contestant)
Nikki Fox
(Contestant)
Iain Stirling
(Contestant)
Kate Drysdale
(Series producer)
More Information
Did You Know..
Grace Dent
(Judge)
John Torode
(Judge)
Born:
July 23, 1965
in
Melbourne, Australia
Best Known For:
Being a MasterChef judge
Early-life:
Born John Douglas Torode in Melbourne, Australia, on July 23, 1965. His mother died suddenly of cardiomyopathy (a weakened heart) when he was just four. As his father had to travel a lot on business, John and his two older brothers were looked after by their grandmother near Sydney for six years, until his father was able to take them back to Melbourne. At school, John didn't enjoy sports - his asthma made him nervous about competing - but he did develop a love of cooking, and left at 16 to get a job in a kitchen.
Career:
At the age of 25, Torode moved to the UK to further his culinary career, joining the Conran group and working his way up through a series of top London restaurants. He has since owned various London restaurants. Torode got a taste for TV work when he appeared as a food expert on This Morning, but he hated being asked to demonstrate recipes for what he describes as "cheap food", so quit and vowed never to cook on TV again. It was MasterChef that really made him a household name when it relaunched in 2005. Since then it has become a huge, prime-time hit, moving from BBC Two to BBC One and spawning several spin-offs. He's also fronted John Torode's Australia, a series about cuisine in his home country.
Quote:
"I still get in the kitchen when I can. You can't do MasterChef and keep making comments like I do unless you are actually practically doing it."
Trivia:
Torode has four children from his two marriages, both of which ended in divorce. He's written nine food-related books.
Vito Coppola
(Judge)
GK Barry
(Contestant)
Kola Bokinni
(Contestant)
Nikki Fox
(Contestant)
Iain Stirling
(Contestant)
Kate Drysdale
(Series producer)
